


Blood of the Roses

by Shadowmaster68



Series: The stories and hardships of Team RWBY! [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Backstory, F/F, First work - Freeform, Future Stuff as well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-01-21 21:51:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1565300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmaster68/pseuds/Shadowmaster68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite the title, it's not to bad (feels wise), at least, I don't think it is. The most basic thing I can give you at this point is that I'm addressing two somethings everyone else seems to ignore, Ruby and Yang's different last/sur. names, and Summer Rose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Seedling

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in winter, starting off at least, so that's why it's basically night so early, see notes at the bottom for a better explanation. In case you were wondering, at the begging here, Yang is 7, and Ruby is 5.

Roses. The most common color of a rose is red. Some people, when they think of roses, will think of white ones. But a rare color to see for a rose, but one that is still just as pretty, or possibly more so, is the yellow/gold rose.

Summer Rose strode quickly though the streets, wanting to get to the babysitter's as quickly as she could. Ruby would throw a fit if she didn't get their quick enough. She rounded a corner and saw something that forced her to make a double take. Sitting on the side walk was a small girl she assumed, it was hard to tell with all of the blonde hair that hid her face. What really worried the ex-huntress, was that the little girl's shoulders were shaking terribly.

Without a second thought, she sat herself down next to the girl, "Are you ok?"

The girl stiffened up, but didn't move away, and gave a short nod. "It doesn't look like your ok," Summer said gently, "Where are your parents?"

The girl looked at Summer with large, purple, tear filled eyes, "I don't know. Mama and Daddy said they'd be right back after the did something and that I wasn't supposed to go anywhere, but I'm so hungry and thirsty, and…and…I WANT MY MOMMY!" She sobbed as she shoved her face into Summer's shoulder. Summer immediately pulled her into a tight embrace, whispering about how she would be fine.

When the little girl stopped crying, but continued shaking, Summer carefully asked, "What's your name?"

"I…I'm Yang X…Xiao Long," she managed to get out between hiccups of sobs.

"Well Yang, I'm Summer, would you like to come home with me?"

Yang nodded into her shoulder, and Summer quickly worked her arms around her and lifted her up. "Ok, we need to go to a friend of mine real quick, and then we can go home, ok?" She asked.

Yang nodded, and wrapped her arms around Summer a little tighter, as they began moving quickly through the night.

***

Summer set Yang down on the front porch of the Baby sitter's house. Yang instantly grabbed hold of Summer's hand and hid herself behind the white cape draped across Summer's shoulders. Summer smiled down at her, and opened the door to the home. Almost immediately she felt a bundle slam against her leg, right as her ears picked up an excited, "Mommy!"

Summer immediately scooped Ruby up into her free arm for a hug and said, "Hey, how's my precious Ruby?"

Ruby giggled at her and said, "Great, and even better now that you are here."

Just then, Qrow walked in the room and said, "Hey sis. How's it going?"

Summer set Ruby down and said, "Pretty good, I found a new friend today." She then turned to Yang and smiled encouragingly.

Ruby took one look at Yang, and gave her the goofiest grin she had, "Hiya! I'm Ruby, what's your name?"

"I-I'm Yang," she managed, a bit more confidently than when she had introduced herself to Summer, who noted that.

"Ruby why don't you go show Yang some of the games we have here while your mom and I talk," Qrow said.

"Ok uncle Qrow," she said happily as she dragged Yang away.

"Who is she?" He inquired as soon as they were gone.

"Yang Xiao Long, I found here sitting on the sidewalk alone, saying her parents had gone off to do something," Summer noticed how Qrow's eyes widened slightly at the mention of the name, "What is it?"

"Nothing!" Qrow said quickly as he got up and began removing cookies from the oven.

"Don't make me cash in one of the many times you owe me for saving your…butt," she said, avoiding cursing in front of her five year old child.

He glanced at the other room to make sure that Ruby and Yang couldn't hear him, and whispered to Summer, "The only Xiao Long's I've heard of were killed two days ago, mugged in a back alley. A man and his wife. The money was the only thing taken off of them. Some people knew they had a daughter, so the police have been looking for her."

Summer involuntarily looked over at Yang and Ruby, who had started up a board game. "I'll adopt her. I don't think Ash will mind to much, in fact, I'm certain he'll love her."

Qrow smiled at her and said, "You always did have a thing for strays leader."

"If I didn't, you wouldn't have ever gotten into Beacon, or became a teacher at Signal," she teased, "Alright girls, let's go home."

The two girls scrambled up quickly, and Summer pulled her purse out, and quickly paid Qrow his usual fee. "I assume I'll be charging you double tomorrow?" He asked as be accepted the money.

"On Monday, yes, tomorrow is Saturday, so I get the day off," Ruby let out a small squeal of excitement when she heard that. Summer picked the two girls up, one in each arm, and said a quick goodnight to her ex-teammate.


	2. New Rose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the day we've waited for. This is the day Shadowmaster posts chapter 2.  
> (Not the best song lyrics in the world, but what are you gonna do.) Anyways, like the song said above, it's here it's here, it's finally here. Chapter 2, The New Rose. Apologies for taking longer than I had said in the comment on chapter 1, I was dragged away honestly a minute or two after I hit send on that to go do some work for a friend of mine.
> 
> Leave any likes/dislikes/hates/loves at the bottom in the comments and I will make sure you don't go unanswered, just don't expect an instantaneous reply, as we can see, it takes me a while to come up with this stuffs sometimes.

Summer quickly adjusted Ruby so that she was on her mothers shoulders. Yang was held in Summers arms closely. She set her purse on the door knob of her apartment, she and Ash really did have to find an actual home sometime soon, especially with the new addition to the house, Summer thought as she dug around for her key card.

When she finally found it, she quickly swiped it through the slot, and watched the light turn red. Rejected, she thought bitterly, I absolutely hate these doors. She ran it through again in a different, way, and watched the passive blue light flash red again. She gave a frustrated growl and tried a third time, once again changing the way she slid it through, and once again watching the red light taunt her. Right as she started to lower the girls to the ground so that she could kick the damn door down, Ruby snatched the card from her mothers hands and swiped it through quickly and easily, watching the light flash green and the door pop open slightly.

Ruby handed the card back to her mother, and got an amused glare, and a mutter of, "Show off," in return. Ruby cracked her a large grin, and Summer fought her own grin down. She quickly set Ruby down on the couch, and carried Yang into the kitchen. She sat her down in a chair and proceeded to get one of the cups Ruby typically drinks from down. She then poured filled the cup with water and put it before Yang, she turned to get the bread out, and heard the cup be placed on the counter, empty. Summer finished her current task and refilled Yang's cup. She then repeated this process another two or three times as she got out meat and began making the sandwich for the little girl.

When she finished, she placed the complete master piece in front of the hungry girl, and watched it vanish in under a minute. "Do you want another?" Summer asked, unsure of how hungry the child really was. When Yang nodded she started up making another immediately, and using the amount of time it took for Yang to eat the sandwich to refill her water cup. After her tenth cup, and her fourth sandwich, Yang stopped. She gave a satisfied smile and slid down slightly in her chair.  
Summer sat down in the chair next to her, and asked, "So Yang, how old are you?"

"Seven," Yang said sleepily.

Summer glanced at the clock and saw that it was about five. "Ruby," she called, "Are you hungry?"

Ruby bound into the kitchen and gave her mother a large hug and a, "Yes."

"Are sandwiches ok?" Summer asked?

Ruby, gave a nod into the crook of Summer's neck and then released her from the embrace. Summer quickly got up and began assembling sandwich's. She was about to start a second when she looked up at Ruby, the unspoken question on her lips. "Just two mommy," Ruby said. Summer nodded and quickly out together a second sandwich. She put the two sandwich's in front of her daughter and turned to the blonde, who was quickly beginning to fall asleep in her chair.

"How about we get you a shower and into bed sleepy head?" She asked. She got a tired nod in response. The apartment was, luckily, a three bedroom one bath, like Ash had insisted, so Yang would have her own room, Ruby would have her own, and Ash and Summer could share a bedroom, like they usually did anyway. Assuming he's back in time, Summer thought. She knew he would be coming back, but there were to many times that he would return later than he told her he would, causing her to end up going to sleep due to stress or worry, if she even managed to fall asleep.

She picked Yang up and carried her into the bathroom, "Can you shower by yourself?" Summer asked looking down at the girl.

She got another tired yawn in response, along with Yang saying, "I'll just put these back on, I don't have anything else with me."

Summer looked a little taken back, and then she realized she didn't have anything that would fit the blonde, and nodded reluctantly. She then turned and walked out of the bathroom, and saw a relaxing Ruby watching tv. The door shut quietly behind her, and Summer went over and scooped the unsuspecting girl up into her arms, receiving a surprised squeal in response, followed quickly by a giggling, "Mommy!"

"What?" Summer asked defensively as she set her daughter down on the floor and began tickling the little red haired girl. After a few minutes of this her daughter eventually began gasping for air, claiming trouble breathing. Summer released her daughter and looked up to see the bathroom door hanging open and a slightly drippy Yang looking at her and Ruby. "Still feeling tired?" Summer called out the the girl.

"Yeah," Yang said with a yawn. Summer got up and took the little girl's hand, gently leading her to the unmarked guest room.

"This will be your room, ok?" Summer said, looking at the girl for a response. She didn't even receive one as the girl released her hand and crawled into the bed. Summer gently shut the door and went back into the living/dining room, and saw Ruby yawning. "Are you tired now Rubles?"

Ruby nodded and let out another yawn. She then got up and went back to her room. She's only five and already acting more mature than I did when I was Yang's age, Summer thought, now that's just not right. She gave her daughter a few moments and then slipped back there to see Ruby already in her bed. "Goodnight my precious Ruby," she whispered.

"Goodnight momma," she heard in response. She quietly shut the door and peaked at Yang, seeing her still just lying in bed, with her back to the door. Summer couldn't tell if the girl was sleeping or not, and refused to risk waking her in case she was, so she simply slid the door shut.

She moved back to the living room and watched about twenty seconds worth of tv before turning it off and deciding to turn in early, in hopes that she would actually get some sleep.

She slipped into her room, pausing for a moment to look at the two now occupied rooms, and smile lightly to herself. She then went into her room, shut the door, and passed out into her bed.

Ruby waited for what felt like an eternity, but was only two minutes according to the clock on her bed. She quietly slipped out of her bed, and down the hall to her mother's room. She placed her ear against the door and listened for a moment, until she heard the light snoring that signified her parental unit was asleep. She grinned to herself and moved back down the hall to Yang's new room.

She cautiously opened the door, and whispered, "Yang, are you awake?" Yang shifted over to her other side so that Ruby could see the lilac eyes filled with tears looking at her. Without asking, Ruby instantly crawled into the other girl's bed and snuggled up against the warm figure. Yang gave her a slightly surprised look, followed immediately by a smile and more tears. Ruby, somehow knowing exactly what had to be done, pulled the other girl in for a hug, and felt Yang do the same, burying her face in Ruby's hair, and letting silently letting the tears flow. They stayed like this until they both fell asleep, and still not moving even then.

***

Summer awoke to and immediately felt the other in the person in bed with her. It was obviously someone who had done this multiple times before, otherwise, thanks to her training as a huntress, she would have awoken in an instant. As she slowly awoke, she realized their was a face buried in the back of her neck, and arms wrapped around her stomach. She glanced up and noticed that it was nine in the morning.

"Ruby," she mumbled, "I want to sleep longer."

"Ruby's still in her own bed," was the response she got. Her eyes shot open and she twisted around to find herself face to face with Ash Rose, her loving husband. She could feel her eyes and smile light up, and she immediately began to kiss the man. She felt him start to deepen the kiss and she pulled back suddenly.

"I need to talk you before we do anything like that," she said.

"Alright," he said, knowing that she wouldn't interrupt like that if it wasn't extremely important.

Summer collected her thoughts for a moment and said, "Well, yesterday I was out heading to Qrow's to get Ruby, and came across a little girl sitting on the sidewalk crying. I talked to her and took her to Qrow's and took her home with me and Ruby. She told me she's seven and her name is Yang Xiao Long."

She saw recognition dawn on his face as he said, "I know her. A few years back I was doing a job in another kingdom, can't remember which, and I stayed with a nice family. The Xiao Longs were the only one willing to take in a Faunus hunter, and showed me a lot of kindness. While I stayed a few nights with them, I met their daughter, a little blonde haired girl named Yang with lilac eyes. What was she doing on the sidewalk? Do you know where her parents are?"

"Her parents are dead," Summer deadpanned, "they were mugged in an alley and killed. I was planning on adopting her, assuming it was ok with you."

"It's the least I can do after how her parents helped me," he replied eagerly.

"I knew you would say that," she said happily, as she began to massage the base of his horns, which were hidden in the crimson shaggy mess that he called hair. The rest of them almost feathers of blood from a distance, or at least, that was what he had been told.

He let out a little groan and said, "Dust that feels great. I try to do that myself, but it never has, and probably never will feel as good as when you do it."

All of a sudden the door opened and a yawning Ruby walked in saying, "Mommy, Yang and I are-" she stopped when she saw her father lying in the bed next to her mother. "DADDY!" She cheered as she crawled into the bed and tackled her father in a hug.

"Hey Rubles," he said happily and returning the hug. Summer continued lounging next to them, admiring her daughter and husband, feeling like the luckiest woman alive, when she randomly glanced over at the door and saw the blonde standing their watching the scene in front of her.

"Hey Yang," Summer called out happily, "why don't you come join us over here?" Yang gave the biggest, happiest eyes Summer had ever seen before, and immediately crawled on top of her and snuggled in. Yang Xiao Long was officially part of the Rose family before the weekend was out.

*Three years later*

"Happy birthday Ruby!" Summer shouted as she set the plate of cookies and the wrapped box before her eight year old ball of energy. Ash, much to everyone's displeasure, including his own, was out on a job and wouldn't be back until a week later. Ruby quickly began devouring the chocolate chip cookies while Yang and Summer began singing. Ruby cleared the plate and waited patiently for the duo to finish before eyeing her presents. "Go ahead Ruby," Summer said cheerfully.

She immediately took the present Yang got her, and unwrapped it to reveal a stuffed toy Beowulf. Ruby let out an excited squeal and squeezed it tightly. "I love it Yang!" She cheered and jumped up to give her older sister a hug. She switched to the other present and unwrapped, revealing a massive red cape. Ruby let out an excited gasp and shouted "Mommy did you really? Thank you so much I love it, I love it, I love it!" She leaped at her mother and wrapped her arms around her.

Summer happily hugged her daughter back and glanced over at Yang. "I was planning on getting something like this for you, but I didn't know what color you wanted."

Yang gave a shrug while Ruby looked deep in thought for a moment. "If Yang lets her hair grow out, she could use that as a cape."

Yang gave her a surprised look for a moment, and then a huge smile followed by, "That's a great idea Ruby!" And gave her little sister a hug.

*two years after that: Summer and Ash are both called in for a large hunt, forcing even those who had retired out of it.

*one week later: Ash returns home, and Summer is officially reported as MIA.

*two years later: the police cease their search for Summer

*three years later: Yang graduates from Signal

*one week later*

Yang strode into the bar, club, with only one goal in her mind. She saw her target, some fool who called himself Junior. She noticed he was talking to a guy with a cane, a hat, and red hair, though not as red as her father's. As she walked to wards Junior the man with a cane walked away and several men all wearing the same outfit walked off with him.

As Yang began her interrogation she brought her phone out quickly to check and make sure the picture was still there. "People say you know everything," Yang said as she pulled out her phone to reveal a picture of Summer, without her cape, "Tell me where I can find her and I'll let you go."

"I've never seen her before. I swear," he managed out.

"Excuse me?" She asked, squeezing tighter.

"I swear sir," he whimpered out, correcting his mistake.

Dammit, she thought to herself, sorry Ruby. She was about to release the idiot and walk away when she saw so e of his goons run up and she decided to have some fun.

***

Ruby hoped on the back of Bumblebee, Yang's bike, and said, "Dad needs to talk to you."

Yang let out a slight groan but didn't argue, and took off towards home.

It was a short ride, and they were quickly going up the stairs to their apartment. They walked in and were met by a grim looking face under the crimson shaggy mess that he still referred to as hair. "Ruby, please go to your room, or Yang's I don't care right now, I just need to talk to your sister."

Ruby nodded reluctantly and walked into Yang's room. Ash waited another moment and then shouted, "Please shut the door Ruby." There was an echoing click as the door shut. Ash then turned on his heel and when. Yang began to follow, he stopped her and shook his head, he pointed to the hallway, and Yang did as she was told, frowning in wonder all the while. She stood in the hallway, and say Ash slam his door shut. He then quietly tiptoed back out into the hall with her, and gestured to the closed off stairs, making sure to leave the door open.

When they were both standing in the hallway where the stairs were located, he looked at her and asked only one question, "Why were you in that club?"

Yang knew better than to try to lie to her father, not that she had honestly ever tried before, she only knew from the one or two times Ruby had tried, "I was asking someone about mom."

He nodded as if he had been expecting as much. "I'm going to tell you something, and you can't ever tell Ruby. That will be my job, and I'm going to wait for her to graduate from Signal, just like I am to you now. Summer is dead. I watched her die. We got separated, and she was surrounded by Ursi and Beowulves. They killed her, and dragged her body away. That's why they tried to list her as MIA. It's my fault, if I had been more careful we wouldn't have been separated. If I had been faster I could have killed some of the ones surrounding her, and helped her get away. I…I…"

He was cut off abruptly by his daughter pulling him into a large hug and whispering, "It's not your fault. Nothing you could have done differently would have changed this. Summer was the best of the best. If you had been with her, no one would have come home to us."

He let out a chocked gasp and said, "I'm sorry." He repeated the phrase for a few minutes, refusing to let any tears flow. He stood up straight and said, "Thank you Yang, I needed that."

They both turned and went back to the apartment, neither surprised to find Yang's door still shut.

*two days later: Ruby's accepted into Beacon academy, two years early.*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So good chapter, right? Anyway, more explanation time. Before you ask, no I will not elaborate on Ash any further than I did last time. Sorry, that's one surprise that you'll just have to wait for. I can't give all my secrets away, I'd be a terrible magician otherweiss (pun intended).  
> Anyway, so I've said it at least once, possibly more, but the next chapter will hopefully come faster because I'll be typing in first person, and that will go something like this:  
> Ruby: I quickly swung Cresant Rose around and blocked his attack, quickly firing a dust shot in his face and riding the recoil a few feet away.  
> Yang: I could feel Blake shudder beneath me as I slowly dragged the shirt up and over her head.
> 
> That's it. I'm not doing anything from Weiss's or Blake's perspective, only Ruby and Yang, both will be used, possibly in the same chapter. I've also decided there will be smut (cheers loudly), just not in chapter 3 (boos angrily). 4 will be the earliest, it will depend on whiter what I have in mind will be better if it's all in one chapter, or two. I'm currently leaning towards two, but early on I was leaning towards one, so we'll see how I feel when I reach the "current end" of chapter 3.
> 
> I'm hoping desperately to post the next one faster, but we'll see how much free time I get within the next few days. Anywho, that's the end of this. Like I said earlier, leave whatever you have to say in the comments and I will reply with a short explanation as soon as, and if, I can. NO SECRETS FOR YOU! SO DON'T ASK!


	3. Winter flowers blossom with a Spring through Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline. Timeline and ships.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter (cheers even louder), but it's only a timeline (prepares to be pelted with tomatoes of rage). As always, leave any love, hate (expecting lots of that), likes, or dislikes down at the bottom in the comments and I will do my best not to leave you unanswered ASAP.

Timeline continued:

*team RWBY's first semester at Beacon: no description, watch the anime*

*team RWBY's second semester at Beacon: Yang has a bad bike accident and is hospitalized

*one week later Yang is released from the hospital, but is in casts and a wheelchair for six weeks, much to everyone's surprise and pleasure (especially Yang's). Blake is the one who dotes and takes care of Yang as opposed to Ruby who was expected to.

*two weeks into the recovery*

Yang: I glanced out the window and tried my best to make my bored sigh unknown to my caretaker. I saw her Fanus ears twitch, and her begin to put her bookmark in the book and I couldn't help cringe slightly. She closed her book and looked over at me, and asked, "What's wrong?"

The habits I had developed at home, most prominently not lying were still in place, "I'm just bored is all, bored and frustrated."

"Why are you frustrated?" She asked curiously.

"Because I feel bad for you having to do everything, for me, and I can't do a single damn thing for myself," I replied, feeling some heat rise to my face.

"Well," Blake started thoughtfully, "I can't do anything about that, because I'm not just going to stop taking care of you, but what can I do to help with your boredom? How about your music?"

I shook my head. "Ok, how about some TV?"

"No thanks, I'll jus-"

Blake shot me a glare that could rival the sun in heat and said, "There will be a punishment if the next few words that come from your mouth are not, 'Tell Blake what might cure my boredom' got it."

I nodded with my mouth still hanging slightly open. I thought quickly, with my eyes darting around trying to find something to do. I settled them on the book on the table and an idea popped into my head. "Read to me?" I asked quietly.

She looked slightly surprised by my request, and then she nodded and got up and moved to the chair next to me instead of across from me. As she began to read, I closed my eyes and listened to the words flow from her beautifully. She stopped suddenly and opened my eyes and glanced at her in curiosity and was met with almost the exact same look, though her's was mixed with some amusement as well.

Dust she's amazing, I thought to myself. Without a second thought I leaned forward and brought my lips to hers, ignoring the slight pinch I felt. At least, I did until I felt her stiffen up. I pulled back and looked down feeling guilty. "Sorry about," I said looking down, practically feeling my face turning a shade of red to rival tomatoes.

"What are you sorry about?" She asked suddenly. I looked up quickly and saw her face was a shade of red all of it's own too. "That was part of why I was taking care of you," she continued, "I was planning on waiting another week or two, and then I was going to say something about it to you. I leaned forward gave her nose a peck, and when her head shot up to give me a look I quickly caught her lips against my own again.

"Awwwwwww! You two are so cute!" I heard off to the side, followed by an amused snicker. I was content to stay the way we were, but Blake pulled away and said loudly, "If you two are gonna stand there and gawk at us, you could at least shut the door."

Weiss quickly shut the door when, and Ruby gave us the biggest grin I had ever seen in my entire life.

"Sh…shut up!" I manage to stammer up, and really wishing I wasn't stuck in this blasted wheel chair with a broken arm and leg. I glared at them and could only watch as their grins got bigger.

"When I get out of this chair I'm gonna wipe those smirks right off your faces," I threatened emptily.

I saw Blake finish tying the bow over her ears and growled out, "Now that is something I can really help you with." She grabbed Gambol Shroud and began to quickly stride to the two. I laughed when I saw their looks of amusement turn to fear as Weiss quickly grabbed Ruby's hand and dart out the door. Blake slammed the door shut and clicked the lock, she came back over and went back to reading to me like nothing had happened, but she had left Gambol Shroud, making it obvious she was actually planning on causing some harm to them should they attempt to return before she unlocked the door again.

*three days after the recovery, Blake and Yang come out with their relationship.*

*the first year at Beacon ends, Blake goes and stays with Weiss during the summer brake while Yang and Ruby go back to Ash's apartment, though the team meets up frequently (mostly so the "bumblebee couple" as they called themselves could meet up)*

*the second year at Beacon begins*

*three months into the first semester*

Ruby: I could smell the dust in use long before I got near the training room. I opened the door and saw Weiss was practicing against the training dummies. I couldn't help but smile at those things, they had been replaced four different times during their first year. Ozpin was no longer able to boast that the dummies were capable of withstanding anything. Each member of team RWBY, myself included, had been the cause of each replacing, on our own of course, if multiple members were involved it was going to be a spar.

Weiss saw me standing in the door, and gave me a slight frown, but didn't say anything as she continued dishing out harsh punishment to the poor dummies. I noticed they were fairly close to needing another good replacing if I didn't intervene and I called out, "Hey Weiss! Why don't you go against me instead of those."

She glanced over at me again, and stopped for a moment to survey the damage she had done to the dummies. "Sure, I don't want Ozpin annoyed with us." She went over to the switch on the wall and flicked, and watched the dummies sink into the floor. I took a moment to survey the room and saw their were a few stacked boxes of dust. I pulled Crescent Rose off my back and quickly unfolded it.

Weiss quickly strode over and popped open one of the boxes and began filling her dust chambers. "I'm gonna need blanks," I said suddenly. She pointed quietly at the boxes on the other side of the room. I went over and opened the box and grabbed three clips that were the right size and contained the correct caliber bullets that Crescent Rose used.

We both moved to the center of the room and readied our weapons. I charged forward suddenly and swung Crescent Rose around me. There was a loud clang as she clashed against me. I quickly leaped back being sure not to give her an edge on me. I saw her charge forward at me and I leaped into the air, swinging CR behind me and firing. As I flew forward to meet her challenge I began wildly swinging CR around me, being sure to fire towards the wall facing Weiss, propelling myself forward faster and faster at her. Weiss quickly saw what I was doing and simply dived to the left to avoid my oncoming envoy of attacks. I swung myself around an bent my knees slightly as I hit the wall. CR was expanded to my left, the blade just short of being impaled in the wall. I quickly moved my feet so that I was standing on the edges of the still popped box of red dust crystals. "I'm not gonna hold back any more Weiss," I called out happily.

"Neither am I," she replied with simply. These had been the phrases we agreed upon during our sparring matches from last year, to make sure we could use our Semblances. If one of us thought it best we still not use them, we were to say, "I'm just warming up." I focused my aura and burst forward as fast as I could to where Weiss was. I landed and swung CR around, only to realize my target was no longer there. I spun around and saw Weiss standing away from the dust boxes and had activated the red dust chamber on Myrtenaster. She then activated a glyph under her, right when something caught my eye. It was a single red dust crystal that I must have accidentally knocked out of the box when I had rushed forward.

It was rolling straight to Weiss's glyph, which had turned a dark red to match the on her weapon. "WEISS! NO!" I shouted as I shot forward with all the speed I could, muster. I slammed into her and then there was a brilliant flash of red and a resonating BOOM!

*one hour later Ruby is admitted into the hospital with severe burns on the right side of her face and her right arm*

*two weeks later Ruby is released, with her wounds mostly healed, though there were terrible scars where the explosion had happened. Ruby was under orders to return once a month for a routine check up on the scars for at least a year, maybe more. During all of this time and after, Weiss avoided Ruby at all costs.*

*one month later*

Ruby: I glared at the ceiling. The doctors had demanded I stay overnight so that they could triple check in the morning before I was released. I tried to go to sleep, but the eyepatch was still bothering these blasted scars! Most people would tell me to just take it off, but I refused to accidentally scare some kid because they wandered into my room instead of their own, or their parents.

I heard the door creek slightly, and I glanced at the clock to see it was one in the morning. "Yang," I groaned, "Visiting hours are over, I know you want to keep an eye on me, but I'll be fine, go back and get some sleep."

"Well then I had best be extremely grateful that I'm not Yang," a familiar voice replied.

"Weiss!" I said quickly and sat up.

"May I come in?" She asked politely, even though she had already shut the door and strolled in.

I giggled slightly and nodded. "How did you get in? The security guards seem to be pretty strict rule followers, they nearly dragged Yang out of here earlier."

"You get certain perks when your a Schnee," she replied. She glanced over at my eye patch and I could see the pain cross over her face for a moment, before she put on her classic, "I don't have any emotions" face.

"I'm sorry for avoiding you," she said suddenly. I looked at her, shocked, and the laughed a little. She shot me an exasperated look and asked, "What?"

"It's just that it explains why I was having such an easy time avoiding you. Two people avoiding each other makes it a lot easier than only one person avoiding the other." I said, still laughing slightly.

"Why were you avoiding me?" She asked, her voice sounding pained.

I could feel the guilt taking over my face and I said, "Because I was worried you would be angry and hate me for your new scar."

She took her hand and lightly touched the scar that had crossed her old one. I had only avoided getting burn all over my legs, and possibly getting them blown off, because Crescent Rose's blade and taken most of the force down there, but of course, the blast had caused the blade at the base to cut Weiss, only just missing her eye.

She frowned at me and said, "You dolt. I was avoiding you because I was worried about the same from you, only with your burns instead of this little scratch."

I felt my cheeks warm up and I looked down, "Oh."

I felt her hand touch mine and I looked over at her. She had a sad smile on her face and I couldn't help but feel the urge to kiss her come up. I pushed it down and back to the dark corner that it had come from. I had only just managed to become friends with my first real crush and I was not going to screw that up.

She withdrew her hand and stood back up. "Well I had best get back to the dorm room."

I nodded and avoided her gaze. "Weiss," I said as she reached the door. She stopped and glanced over at me. "Thank you for coming," I said with a smile on my face.

She smiled back and said, "Dolt," and she walked out.  
I laid back down and closed my eyes, confident I would get some real sleep now.

*four days later*

Ruby: I watched the blonde and brunette stride off towards the airships. It was a Saturday, and they were planning on spending the day in Vale, leaving the dorm all to me. Well, me, and Weiss of course. But Weiss was busy sitting on her bed, studying something on her scroll with great interest.

I moved onto her bed scooted next to her. She glanced over at me, but gave no indication she wanted me to move away, or get off of her bed. I looked over her shoulder and saw she was reviewing some notes. "What are you studying?" I asked with a frown.

She glanced at me with an eyebrow raised, and said, "Notes for the test we're having next on Monday."  
"What test?" I asked, feeling some panic build up.  
She looked at me for a moment, before realization dawned on her face, "Professor Port said something about it while you were in the hospital for a day.

I let out a groan and said, "And with Port, he was to busy talking about himself after that to ever bother telling me about said test. I'm gonna fail so badly, it won't even be funny."

Weiss sat in thought for a moment, then said, "Here, we'll study together. I can get better practice quizzing you or having you quiz me."

I glanced at her, and nodded, still feeling very panicked. She began asking me questions and I answered them, getting most right, and my confidence slowing building up. She started to ask me another question, and then she stopped suddenly. I glanced at her and saw she was staring at my eye patch. "Is everything ok Weiss?" I asked her, slightly confused.

"Why are you still wearing your eyepatch?" She asked quietly.

I looked down, and thought for a moment. I half considered not answering, or trying to change the subject. But I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything like that. Not to Weiss, if it had been Yang or Blake, maybe, but I couldn't do something like that to her. "I feel hideous with my scars where you can see them," I whispered quietly.

She let out an audible sigh and then she flicked my nose. I looked up at her sharply, "You really are a dolt," she said. I started to protest and she held up a hand to stop me. "I've not been sure how you felt about me for a while now, but I just know that if I don't say anything now I'm liable to explode. I've had feelings for you since this school year started, and a few days ago when I visited you in the hospital, I had planned on saying that to you, but I couldn't find a good time to say anything. When we were holding each other's hands, I wanted to kiss you so badly, I had to force myself to leave so that I wouldn't and mess up our friendship."

She stopped talking for a minute and she was looking at me, obviously expecting a response. I couldn't help but start to laugh a little. I quickly flinched away, knowing she was liable to try to hit me, but instead she had a sort of hurt look on her face. I immediately pulled her into a hug and explained, "Sorry, I shouldn't have laughed. It's just, I've had the same feelings for you since the second semester of last year. I even had the same urge when you visited me."

Weiss looked up at me and their were some tears brimming in her eyes. "You dolt," she said. Then, much to my pleasure and surprise, she grabbed my face, and brought my lips to her own. I immediately returned the intensity she gave to me. We pulled apart when our lungs demanded it. I opened my eye and saw Weiss was staring at my eyepatch again. "Please take it off."

I wanted to protest, but I knew it wouldn't achieve anything. I slowly removed the patch, flinching slightly as I felt a breeze touch the still slightly raw skin. She gently touched my scar, and unlike, when Yang had attempted to touch it, it felt nice, no stinging.

"You're beautiful," she whispered, and then she brought her lips up to it and gave it a light peck. I let out a little giggle and asked, "Does this mean you and I are daring now?"

Weiss rolled her eyes at me and said, "Yes you dolt, we're dating now."

I giggled again and said, "I may be a dolt, but I'm your dolt."

Weiss rolled her eyes at me again and said, "Shut up," and she enforced this command by kissing me again.

*second semester begins for the school year*

*with only one month until the year ends, Weiss and Ruby come out and tell Yang and Blake they are dating*

Yang: I was sitting next to Blake in the library doing my absolute best to focus on studying for the final we had tomorrow, but found myself constantly being distracted by the tinniest of things happening. One example would be a fly that has been bothering me since I came in here. Another is the fact that only a moment ago Ruby and Weiss walked in and just sort of plunked themselves down across from us. The both looked at Blake expectantly, and she had held up four fingers to indicate about four minutes. They had both nodded and pulled out their own books and began studying slightly. I was surprised, not by Weiss's ability to answer all of them right, but Ruby's who had never really all that great at studying was getting them all right straight off the bat.

After a few moments, Blake made it obvious we had reached a good stopping point and indicated to the two across from us that they could speak. They both glanced at each other and Ruby cleared her throat. "Yang, I just need to ask that you don't freak out on me before I say a thing."

I nodded slightly, and said, "I'm sure I can handle anything you have to tell me."

"Ruby and I are dating!" Weiss blurted out quickly. Blake adopted a look of surprise but all I did was give a knowing smirk.

"If that's all then it's all old news for me. Though if you're going public I'm gonna need to take Weiss aside real quick." I got up and started dragging the white haired girl away, "This won't take but a minute," I called back to a very confused looking Ruby and Blake.

I dragged Weiss out of the Library and I took her to a little make shift alley that was between the library and the dorm building.

I released Weiss and she spun around annoyance clear on her face. I applied a simple change to my features as well, and saw her annoyance change into fear. She had seen the last time ,y eyes had turned red like that, and all of team RWBY had told me that the screams of Cardin Winchester still haunted their dreams. When Ruby had told me this I had laughed and said that they lulled me to sleep, and she was grim for another day or two because she knew I was only half joking.

"Listen," I started, and Weiss visible relaxed, all of team RWBY knew if I was actually raging, word would not be spoken, at least not by me, "I have two things to say to you. The first is that if you directly harm Ruby in anyway, shape, or form, your body will not be found. If Ruby ever comes up to me and says you've hurt her, either physically, mentally, emotionally, or socially, their will be pain. Am I understood?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now the second part is that, I don't blame you for the scars Ruby has now. She would have done something like that whether you were her crush, or Roman Torchwick. It's just the way she is," I said, after I had turned my eyes back to their usual lilac color.

She gave me a slight smile, and said, "I know, it's part of why I love her. Oh, and all of those things that will result in harm towards me, I wouldn't ever do something like that, ever."

We both returned to our respective girlfriends and resumed our horrible studying for the blasted finals.

*year two ends. All of team RWBY stays at a summer home that the Schnee family owns.*

*the third year at Beacon begins. Blake makes a decision to go public about her being a Fanus, resulting in taunts from a Cardin Winchester*

*second semester begins, Cardin Winchester does not return to school and is reported missing by the boy's parents*

*the third year of team RWBY ended, Cardin Winchester is still missing.*

*fourth year begins. Still no sign of Cardin Winchester.*

*second semester begins, a charred, only recognized thanks to his shattered weapon, Cardin Winchester's corpse is found at the bottom of the Vale docks. Team CDRL is removed from Beacon due to the leader being dead. The murderer is still at large*

*fourth year ends*

*fifth year begins*

*second semester begins*

*two months before second semester ends, a Roman Torchwick is taken into custody by team RWBY. The rest of his "team" are still at large.*

*year five ends*

*year six (final year) begins*

*Cinder Fall, and the rest of her group are successfully defeated by team RWBY. Cinder Fall was killed, her lackeys were arrested and reside in jail.*

*second semester begins*

*one month before the school year ends, one final graduation test that all seniors must face is announced*

*the next day the airships depart for the testing grounds*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that wasn't to bad, now was it? For those who are curious, I do plan on having a few other one shots that will elaborate further on things I just sort of skipped over when it came to this timeline.  
> Also, I know I told you fine folks that I would be jumping to the graduation year with this chapter, and I'm very sorry I ended up lying to you, it wasn't my intention to do so. My intention had been to slip through without explaining, but as I started writing this chapter, I had to go in and do stuffs with explaining how my two favorite RWBY ships got together. Yes, Yang's "big sister talk" was unnecessary, but I felt it just worked. As a matter of fact, I had to work not to explain further with Roman or Cinder when I reached those things.  
> Now, I know someone out there is probably thinking, well you totally could have still had the original things you planned to have in this chapter, there' son way you ended up using all 500,000 characters, and you would be correct sir/madam. The reason I didn't do such a thing was because, I'm using pages (unrelated I know but hear me out), and this chapter alone used 6 and a half pages, and an exact count of 20,429 characters, counting spaces. The next chapter, I promise you, will not have any timeline what so ever, and will be much less romantic and far more interesting.  
> Speaking of romance, I want to apologize how shitty my romantic scenes were, I'm a guy, and have had only one real and good relationship in my life so far, so I have a very, very, very, very limited idea on how those sort of situations would actually play out. I also don't really know if these are how the girls would say those sort of things, we just haven't seen them in those sorts of situations in the anime before, so if I'm 100% honest, a good portion of what I had was my own imagination (thankfully clean for once in my goddamn life) and other peoples fan fictions. If you do not think that's at all how these situations would have happened, say something in the comments, I'm bound to better explain why I felt certain things worked while others didn't.
> 
> Wow, this was my biggest rant ever and the chapter isn't even posted yet. Oh well, is sleep time (4:30 in da morning) good night my reader(s), I'll rant some more with you when I'm not so tired I can't type properly.


	4. The Everlasting Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Begining of the final Graduation Project. Three days in Grimm filled woods should be no problem for the number one team at Beacon advanced training. But how will the team react to finding news of a long lost someone…read on to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proofread by XxChaosLinkxX, he found errors, but we're working out some kinks for getting the corrections across.  
> It's finally here, chapter 4! The next two chapters end the plot (going to add an epilogue), but the extra two will be the long awaited smut, which will happen after the events of the next chapter.
> 
> As always, leave any love/hate/likes/dislikes at the bottom in the comments and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Ruby: I couldn't help but smile slightly as I thought of all the amazing events and accomplishments we had achieved, though I couldn't stop the frown at remembering Cinder. Not even once had I felt guilty about killing her, she had been about to kill Yang and Weiss, whose lives were far more important to me than hers. It was just the fact that she was the only witch even Ozpin had seen in his lifetime, and he had hoped to ask her a few questions.

"Is everything ok Ruby?" The love of my life asked, while she looked at me with some concern.

"Everything's fine Snow Angel," I replied with a smile. I saw her roll her eyes at the nickname, but I knew she loved it almost as much as she loved me.

I saw Jaune open his mouth to speak, until Pyrrha placed her hand on his shoulder. He had bellyached to me so many times I stopped counting about me stealing the nickname he had tried to call Weiss before, and that everyone had heard it at least once, and everyone had agreed that it would only have been appropriate if he had been dating her, like I am. Weiss's exact words had been, "Jaune, I'm dating Ruby, so it is ok for her to call me that, I was not, and am not dating you, so it is not ok for you to call me that, and if you try to do so again I will allow Ruby to cause physical harm to you."

I glanced over at Yang, who was relaxing with her head in Blake's lap. Blake on the other hand was contently reading a book while with an absent mind running a hand through her girlfriend's long golden hair.

Weiss leaned a little on me, and gave my eyepatch a kiss. I smiled at her, she knew before I did most of the time when the blasted eyepatch was bothering my scars again. Everyone on the airship had seen my scars at least once, but it made everyone but the members of my team uncomfortable, even if they wouldn't ever admit it, I knew it did, so I left it on. It was actually something Weiss and I had argued over for about two hours straight, an hour before we had gotten on the airship, and an hour after the airship took off.

As Weiss cuddled in closer I noticed Yang give me a smirk. Though I had won the argument. It had ended with Weiss claiming she wasn't going to cuddle with me again until I either took the eyepatch off, or the final graduation test was complete. I rolled my eye over at her and pulled Weiss closer. The rest of the passengers, meaning Team JNPR, Ozpin and Goodwitch, were all spread out conversing with one another.

Being one of the top two teams of the advanced training classes, second and final year, had some massive advantages, such as getting an airship practically to yourself, or said airship being a first class flight with in air service included. While the extra years were just that, extra, and not really needed, they were almost always taken. Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch were close to the pilots door, probably discussing what we were going to do when we landed.

I glanced over at Blake again and quietly muttered her name. Without even looking up at me she nodded, confirming what I had suspected. I quickly gave Weiss a kiss in the top of her head and whispered in her ear, "I love you," before gently biting her earlobe.

She let out a quiet moan before whispering back to me, "Ruby! You can't do that, there are other people here."

I rolled my eye again, but released the ear I had captured, giving her another kiss on the top of her head. I glanced around to see if anyone had seen or heard us, other than Blake, who had grown so accustom to that sort of treatment of others thanks to Yang, she showed no physical reaction. Jaune and Pyrrha were chatting idly, Yang had moved herself so that she had her head resting in Blake's shoulder, reading along with her girlfriend, and Ren and Nora were kissing near the back of the ship. It was a tactic to get Nora to be quiet Ren had developed when those two had first started dating. He would kiss her to get her to originally stop talking, and then Nora would be quiet, usually with a large smile on her face, for a good while after.

It was such a good tactic that both Blake and Weiss had adopted it for their own use, though with Yang, it usually resulted in only a few after seconds of quiet before she requested another from Blake.

Ozpin stood up suddenly and moved into the cockpit with the pilot. I glanced at Blake, hoping she would clarify, but I saw she and Yang were making out, meaning their only focus would be on the other, and she missed what ever had prompted Ozpin to speak or flee to the pilot.

Ozpin strode back in and cleared his throat loudly, breaking the couples apart, "As some of you already know," he started with a glance in Blake's direction, "We will be landing in the Winter Woods within the next few minutes, where you will be asked to survive for exactly three days. We will provide you with a weather proof tent, ammunition, dust, two pot for food and water, cooking utensils and flare guns. The flare guns are only to be used to signal you are backing out of the test, in which case, someone will be sent to pick you up. Also, because you are the top two teams of the advanced training classes, you will have the entire area to yourselves. Are there any questions?"

I glanced around and saw that no one had raised their hands to ask anything. Probably because Ozpin would ignore them anyway. "No questions then? Very well," he said as he took another sip of his coffee, "Should any of you happen to change your mind within the next…oh thirty seconds I'm right here."

I looked down at Weiss and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. I glanced over at Ren and Nora and saw that they were checking and readying their weapons. Yang and Blake were doing the same, while Jaune and Pyrrha were helping each other double check their shields and armor were in good condition. Weiss stood up suddenly and double checked her dust canisters, which I knew for a fact were all full. I had filled them myself, and triple checked them before we left.

I stood up myself and stretched a little, I pulled CR off my back and looked it over, making sure it didn't have any nicks or scratches on it that I would have to take care of before I lost the ability to for three days. I wanted to transform it into it's scythe form, but everyone, Weiss included, had asked me not to do so till we touched ground again. I put it away, and saw Ozpin and Goodwitch were discussing something again. The airship lurched slightly, and I knew we were above the drop off point. No one, however, made any motion to open the doors back here. Obviously, Ozpin meant to let us off on the ground, instead of quite literally, dropping us off.

I felt the airship touchdown gently, and the doors swung open. Team JNPR strode out first, and we followed on their heels. Ozpin and Goodwitch had only just gotten off before the airship lifted up again, and took off, back in the direction of Beacon if I were to guess.

"Alright everyone," Goodwitch said loudly, "Your supplies have already been separated, gather them up, and then pick a direction and start going."

I glanced at the rest of my team and said, "Yang and I will carry the supplies, since we have the most strength for carrying them." The others nodded and Yang and I went over to one of the large mounds of supplies. As we started collecting, I heard a twig snap in the forest. My eyes shot up and I saw something long and white flutter quickly behind a tree before it vanished. I glanced over at Yang to see if she had heard or seen anything, but she showed no reaction at all. I looked back in the direction it had vanished and frowned. Something about whatever that had been was familiar, but I couldn't place what it was exactly. I finished grabbing supplies and motioned over to Weiss and Blake.

"Now that we have our supplies, what direction are we headed to?" Asked Weiss, as I handed her a flare gun.

"That way," I said instantly, motioning in the direction I had see the movement. Everyone nodded and we started off. Over the years we had never discussed any sort of organization for our trips like this, and yet we seemed to have made one up that everyone respected. I would lead, with Weiss to my right and back slightly, Blake would flank my left further back than Weiss, and Yang would follow several feet behind me. Our make shift diamond had always seemed to work just fine, and allowed us to split with anyone should the need arise.

As we continued moving forward, I heard gunfire far behind us, and I knew Team JNPR had already found Grimm to fight. I wasn't worried, Jaune over the years had become an amazing fighter, and an even better leader, and the rest of his team had been constantly sharpening their already amazing skills. We, on the other hand, continued on for hours and didn't see a single Grimm. I heard Blake stop as we entered a clearing, and we all did the same. I glanced over at her, and saw her ears were twitching around, and her eyes were closed. "There's a cliff ahead, with something man made at the top," She frowned slightly, "What ever the object over there is, it's made of stone, but the scent on it is fairly fresh, a couple of days old at most. It's not one I recognize either."

"Do you think it's safe to check out?" I asked.

She opened her eyes and looked at me, "Yes, but I think we should stop in this little clearing for the night."

I nodded and Yang and I set the equipment down. Blake and Weiss started setting up the two tents we had, while Yang and I stretched our arms a little. When the tents were set up I looked over at Blake and said, "Climb one of these trees real quick and see how safe the area is. I'd rather not be in the middle of a good nights sleep and wake up to staring at a Beowulf attempting to eat me."

She nodded and started up a nearby tree. I looked over at Yang and said, "Gather up some snow and make us some water." Yang gave a little bow and grabbed a pot out of her tent. "Weiss, you and I are going hunting." I said happily. She nodded and pulled out her knife while I did the same. While it was possible, it was also overkill to take out rabbits, squirrels, or anything else we came across with our real weapons.

We set out and quickly came across two rabbits, a fox, and three fat squirrels. I ended up only killing the fox, and stuck with all the skinning. We then moved further from camp and carefully spread out the pelts, making it so that it would smell as if there was a wounded animal out there, which is a much easier meal than four almost official huntresses for the wandering Ursa or Beowulf.

We then carried the meat back and saw Yang had set the pot down and was chatting idly with Blake. Weiss and I both took a drink from the pot and set met down inside to boil. Yang got up and grabbed the other pot, filling it again with snow and giving it a bit of her semblance. She set the thing down, and I glanced over at Blake.

"The area is clear. I didn't hear, see, or smell a single Grimm any where nearby," she said calmly.

I frowned at this and said, "Aren't these woods supposed to be infamous for being filled brim to brim with Grimm?"

Everyone nodded and I asked, "Then why aren't we seeing anything?"

Yang frowned as if this hadn't occurred to her before, while Blake and Weiss glanced at each other. "Well if it stays like this then this test should be a cinch, right?" Yang asked.

"That's true," I said. As if on cue a howl ripped through our clearing. Everyone leaped up and drew our weapons. "Blake?"

"I swear there wasn't anything when I finished my check a minute before you got here." She replied.

"How many are we dealing with?" I asked, more focused on the now than the past, especially when I saw something black dart between trees.

"A small pack, only ten." She said.

"Alphas?"

"No."

"You're certain?"

I felt a light tap on the back of my head, "One hundred percent," I heard in my ear.

I smiled and said, "Then this is going to be to easy."

One darted forward and I swung CR around, still in it's rifle form, and put a bullet through it's head. "Nine left!" I called out.

I heard a shotgun blast followed by a happy, "Eight!"

"Five!" I heard Blake call.

I felt Weiss's semblance activate, and heard her call, "Three!"

Another two charged at me, both receiving a bullet in their head before they really left the tree line. "One left!" I called again.

I heard another shotgun blast and a yelp of pain with which Yang cheered, "That's all of them."

I glanced at Blake who nodded her confirmation and we all put our weapons away.

"That was borrrrrrinnnnnng," Yang complained, "Where's the challenge in surviving in this place for three days if that's the worst it has to offer."

I shrugged and said, "We'll see just how bad it gets later, for now, I think we had best add some flavor to our meal."

Yang tried a sip of the water and said, "I know just what will go with this." She got up and began scouting around for whatever it was she was thought it needed. She let out a little victory cry and ripped something out of the ground. She carried it over to the pot and effectively crumpled it up and let it fall in. She stirred a little and then took another sip. "Much better," she said happily.

"When is it going to be ready to eat?" I asked happy Yang was cooking. Yang is a natural at cooking and she knows it, she makes just about anything edible, and I've never seen her throw anything out because it was bad tasting, she just made it better.

"Give me about half an hour and we will have our dinner," she replied back, "Blake, I'm gonna need your help with getting ingredients."

"Alright," Blake replied with a smile on her face. She, like her girlfriend, was an amazing cook, though Blake was better with wild ingredients than Yang, so put together I was certain we would get an amazing meal.

I went over to Weiss, who was relaxing under a close by tree and sat down next to her, putting my head on her shoulder. She gave me a hug and looked at my face, "You know it's just Team RWBY out here right?"

"Yeah," I said, not quite sure where she was going with that question.

"Then why is that still on?" She asked, while festering towards my eyepatch.

I let out a sigh and said, "Finnnnnnne." I reached up behind my head and slowly slipped the piece off.

She gave me a smile when it was all the way off and said, "Beautiful as always," as she kissed my scarred eye.

I smiled at her again and pulled her lips down to mine. Her arms wrapped around me and pulled me close. Oh…Dominant Weiss is coming out…I LOVE Dominant Weiss, I thought happily as she deepened the kiss. One of her hands slipped lower and squeezed my ass. I let out a quiet moan and she took the opportunity to shove her tongue into my mouth. We kept going until I felt like my lungs were on fire and then I pulled back.

She tried her best to pout at me, but it failed due to her smile and panting for air. We were right about to go at each other again when all we heard to our left, "If you two are going to do anything get in the tent!" Blake called. Followed very closely by Yang's laugh.

We pulled apart, and Weiss, who's face had become red glared at them, which only made Yang laugh harder. I rolled my eyes at them and pulled Weiss in for another, lighter, kiss. We pulled apart and just sat next to each other. After a minute, Weiss out her head on my shoulder again, and when I glanced over at her, her eyes were closed. I smiled at the sight and looked leaned my head against hers and closed my eyes. We stayed like this for a while, neither of us falling asleep, just relaxing against each other. After some time, I heard Yang call out, "Dinner's ready."

I looked down at Weiss and saw her open her eyes and get up. I did the same and we both headed over to where the pot was set. Blake handed each of us a spoon and we sat down and began to eat the stew straight from the pot. The meal was gone before ten minutes was up and I leaned back feeling full.

"Time?" I asked Blake, who seemed to have a built in clock.

"About eleven," she replied.

"Anyone tired?" I asked the group with a yawn.

Yang yawned back in response. Blake gave her a surprised look, then said, "I wouldn't mind some sleep."

Weiss shrugged and said "I'm getting kinda tired."

I rolled my eyes at all of them, then yawned again and said, "Well I'm pretty well exhausted, so I'm turning. Night everyone."

I got up and dragged myself to the white and red tent Weiss and I were sharing. I laid myself down on the sleeping bag with Crescent Rose to my left, and Weiss's sleeping bag to my right, and passed out.

***

I awoke to Weiss shaking me. I let out a groan and rolled over. "Weisssssss I need more sleep."

"No. You need to get up. Unless you want to miss Yang's Boarbatusk bacon," Weiss replied.

I let out a large sigh and said, "No, I suppose I don't want that," and I forced myself up. "Who killed it so quietly?" I asked as Weiss dragged me out of the tent and into the sunlight.

"That would be me," I heard Blake say by a fire.

"Thanks for that," I replied with a yawn.

Yang walked up to me and handed me a few pieces of the bacon. I quickly gobbled up the strips in my hand, and felt a sudden boost of energy, one that even beat the boost I normally get from my "rocket" cookies, as Weiss calls them. They earned said name because they had so much sugar in them that it was probably possible for me to shoot to moon like a rocket.

"Yang," I said, now fully awake, "I don't really know what makes this different than your usual bacon, and I don't really care. I do know that this wakes me up more than a cup of coffee, and it is going to HAVE to be made more often."

Yang rolled her eyes at me, to tired to really speak at this point if I were to guess.

I went over to the fire and Weiss passed me the pot of water, I took a large drink from it and sat down next to her. "When do you want to start moving again?" Blake asked as Yang plopped down beside her.

"Whenever everyone feels awake enough to do so," I replied. We sat there for another moment, chomping on some more of the bacon, when a thought occurred to me. "Hey Blake. How far from here to that cliff we were talking about last night?"

Blake seemed to think for a minute, then said, "Somewhere between one mile to two miles."

"So…" I started, "As soon as Yang's awake enough that she can give us complete sentences instead of one word or grunts."

Yang gave me a pout and a yawn but nothing more. "Based off that response we probably won't be leaving till noon," Blake said with a smile over at the blonde.

***

Blake had only been off on how long it would take a Yang to speak normally by an hour. We had eaten lunch and it was one in the afternoon when Yang said suddenly "Are we leaving now or what?"

Blake had smirked at her and replied with, "Your late. I was expecting us to be able to leave an hour ago, like I said at breakfast."

"Well I'm awake and chatting now, so let's get a move on," was her answer.

Weiss let out a dramatic sigh and said, "And so the silence of the perverted brute ends. Oh how I miss it already."

Yang shot daggers over at Weiss, and I reached over lightly hit Weiss on the shoulder, "Weiss," I teased, "That's mean."

"You had best watch what you say Weiss," Yang threatened teasingly, "I know where you live."

Weiss rolled her eyes and said, "You and the rest of the damn world."

We all laughed at this and got up. "We taking the supplies?" Yang asked.

I thought for a moment, and replied, "No. This can be our base camp for tonight after check out the cliff, and then we can take the stuff with us back tomorrow whenever we set off."

Everyone nodded at the plan I gave. We all restocked our ammo and Weiss her dust, and we started off to the cliff Blake had told us about. It took us about an hour to get their. We all exited the tree line together. I saw the stone, it looked like a marker of sorts. There symbols and words on it, but I couldn't read it from the distance I was at. As we moved closer I noticed something odd about the stone. For starters, even though it had snowed slightly last night after I had gone to bed, there was no snow on the stone. "Blake, that scent you caught a whiff of last night, how fresh is it?" I asked quietly, not taking my eyes off of the stone.

Blake took an audible sniff of the air and said, "Extremely. Who ever it is came here late last night or early this morning and brushed the snow off, they were crying while they were doing it too."

I shot a look over at her, and then my eyes turned back to the stone. It must be a grave marker I thought. As we moved closer to it, I saw something, that looked a lot like the Rose bud that was used as the family symbol. But that doesn't make any sense, I thought, I'm not dead, neither is dad or…mom. I was practically on top of the stone in a whirlwind of rose petals. I read the words under the symbol and could feel my heart being torn into pieces with each one, and yet I couldn't force my eyes to look away, knowing the end of the story told on the stone would kill me, "Here lies, world famous huntress, friend with no bounds to her heart, a beloved wife, and a loving mother. R.I.P. Summer Rose." With the last three words, I collapsed onto the stone and began sobbing.

Yang: I saw Ruby collapse onto the stone and I was on her in seconds. I heard her sobbing and hugged tightly, begging to find out what was wrong. Ruby just turned her self and pulled me into an embrace sobbing now into my shoulder, and probably slightly in my hair, but I was to worried about her to care.

I saw the symbol and read the words on the stone and said, "Ruby. Oh dust Ruby, I'm so sorry." All she did was sob even harder. I slowly lifted her up and moved her off the stone so that we were now a few feet in front of the blasted thing. Ash had never told her, I realized as I held her, he had six damn years to tell her and he never did, I thought angrily. I heard a couple gasps and saw Weiss and Blake had read the gravestone. Ruby and I, after a heated discussion of revealing secrets, we eventually ended up telling the two about Summer and how she vanished during a battle against a large number of Grimm. I had taken Blake aside later and explained to her what Ash had told me.

Blake and Weiss were with us quickly and we were all hugging and sobbing. All of a sudden there was a loud hiss coming from the trees. I glanced over and there were two very large King Taijitas. I noticed these were different than your average Grimm type, they were both easily far bigger and far longer than any I'd ever encounter before. The second strange thing about them was that they didn't move from the tree line, King Taijitas were know for they're swift strikes, and seemingly unending wave of attacks, but these didn't move an inch from their positions just behind the trees. The third thing that was off about them, was that they were not your usual black and white, one was a deep crimson, very similar to the cape that was attached to Ruby's back, and the other was a yellow that was practically the same color as my hair.  
They both let another hiss out, but did not move. Then, a lone figure strode confidently, yet slowly, out of the tree line. It wasn't possible to see their face, but based off the body they looked female. Their face was hidden under a white as the snow hood, that seemed to be attached to a large cape, also pure white, very similar to Ruby's. The King Taijitas let out another hiss as she reached the tree line, but they stopped immediately when she held a hand up.

"It's been to long, hasn't it?" The figure called out. I recognized it, but I couldn't place who it belonged to with a face.

"I'm sorry, is one of you supposed to know you?" Weiss called out while Ruby's sobbing quieted down slightly.

The figure seemed to ignore Weiss and just continued, "It's seems like it was only yesterday I was tucking you to into your beds. You would always sneak into the other's bed acting as if I didn't know what you were doing, and I let you do it because I thought you two were adorable."

Ruby stopped crying suddenly and looked at the figure with tear filled eyes and I finally realized who it was standing there, right as Ruby said cautiously, "M…mom?"

"That's right, my precious little Ruby," Summer Rose's voice replied, followed by a slight snicker from Weiss, who had never heard that nickname before, "And my dear sweet Yang too. I've missed you both so much."

I hugged Ruby tighter, something seemed off about Summer, something different than the woman who had picked me up off the streets, and had raised Ruby. Summer cocked her head to one side as if she was listening to something, then let out a disappointed sigh and said, "I'm sorry to have to cut our reunion so short but I must leave. However, before I do, I have an offer I want to extend. I would like you to come with me. I know this is sudden, so I will give you twenty-four hours to decide. I'll be back here earlier if I notice the two of you are earlier than that."

And with that Summer turned and left the cape billowing behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was fun. I enjoyed writing that. I hope it wasn't to bad for you people. At least it doesn't have a timeline, right? I will not comment on Summer just yet, you can come up with your own ideas for her. Just a warning though, even if you guess correct in the comments, I'm a liar through and through. Anyway, fun stuffs, the next chapter will also have some revelations, along with the smut chapters. Whether it's foreground or after sexy times I have yet to decide, so keep reading.
> 
> Moving away from those topics, I'm really looking forward to volume two. I know, I know, me and every other RWBY fan out there. That was to dim, back to real talks. I'm probably going to change the tags and ratings, with the next chapter, just a little warning.
> 
> I think I'm done being stupid with the typing now, so I'm just gonna leave.


	5. The Roses of Old and New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So another new chapter. Like last time Chaos Links proofread this one for me, the epilogue is still on standby, not that it's any good.  
> As always leave any likes/dislikes/love/hate in the comments below. Also, since the story is now basically over, I'll start answering any and all questions you people may or may not have.

Yang: We sat around the fire I had made, all eyes on Ruby and I. Blake finally cleared her throat and asked us for what was probably the twentieth time, "So…are you two…ok?"

I let out a groan and said, "For the last time we're fine," and surprisingly…we both were. I has been, I was sorry to say, closer to Dad than I ever had been to Mom and I wasn't to badly affected, especially when compared to Dad, or worse yet Ruby. Dad sort of sat around crying for a few days, but he still was on this planet and would eat and the basic essentials. Ruby sort of vanished from the world and only left in her wake a shell. She had to be force fed and dragged from her bed so that she could use the restroom. She was in this state for about two months, and the first thing she did when she finally returned to her body was start sobbing and began clinging to the nearest person, who had just so happened to be me. She stayed attached to me for a good twenty-eight hours constantly sobbing about how some promise had been broken, how much she missed her, and then the last four hours were her apologizing profusely to me for being such a pain, even though I reassured her throughout the entirety of it that she was and had been fine.

However, this time she was doing nothing of the sort. She remained calm after she had stopped sobbing up on the cliff top. She didn't retreat back to wherever it was she had vanished to the first time, Mom had "disappeared." She had walked back with the rest of us, eaten with us, and was seemingly, by all standards, the Ruby version of normal. "Though I do want to talk to Ruby about something."

She glanced over at me and asked, "What is it?"

"Was it just me, or did Summer seem massively different from when we were younger?"

She nodded, but then the ever helpful Weiss put in, "But it's been what…eleven years since you last saw her, people change."

"While that may be true," I started with a sigh and a look of consideration at Ruby, "Ash, our dad, told me after I graduated from Signal that Summer had died in a massive battle against Grimm. I'm sorry Ruby, I would have told you sooner if I had realized Ash never told you like he was supposed to."

She gave me a tired look and said, "No you wouldn't have you liar. I know why your so protective of me, the way I was when Summer first died, and you do your absolute best to keep me from going back into that state, and I'm absolutely certain that you would have thought that if that was the way I reacted when mom, "disappeared" that I'd be liable to off myself because I found out she was dead. I'm not as ignorant as to not realize that. But I've got news for you, the reason I took it so hard was because I knew she had died, that's why I became so worried during the time they were gone, I felt our connection just sort of snap away, so when she didn't return, I knew she was dead. So I don't know who it was that we saw in the woods there, but if it was mom, she either lost her Aura, or has a completely new one."

Blake nodded, "I've heard or more specifically, read, of things like that. Two people who spend enough time together, their Auras start to sort of…fuse, I guess. Both people will gain parts of the other's Aura, and will feel when that part, disappears I suppose."

Weiss looked a little surprised by this and then asked, "What are the effects of this happening, and how long does the process take?"

Blake thought for a moment as she remembered the details, "The effects are usually the pair can feel strong emotions or feelings or whatever that their partner feels. As for the time, if I had to guess a year or two, but I don't know the exact amount."

I saw Weiss and Ruby steal a look at each other, but I was a bit preoccupied thinking of different relationships I had where that was the case. The most obvious one was with Ruby, but now that I thought about it, I realized I'd had similar situations with Blake. Speaking of the beautiful black haired devil, I glanced over at her to see her giving me a smile, one a lot bigger than any other I had gotten from her before. So, I thought, she'd known we've had this connection for a while. I smiled back and got up and gave her hug. I glanced over and saw Ruby and Weiss doing the same. "Ok, so we've had a long and very emotional day, so why don't we all go to our own tents and try to get some sleep," I said.

Everyone nodded and we all slipped into our own tents, hoping for a goodnight sleep.

***

I awoke with a start and immediately shook Blake awake. "What is it?" She managed to get out.

"Get Weiss up and start moving toward the cliff," I said as I started loading shells into Ember and Celica and grabbing extra.

"Why?" She managed as I started leaving.

"Because Ruby's up," I explained while shutting the tent flap.

I saw the flutter of a red cape and I took off after her. She wasn't using her Semblance to move around which meant she didn't care, or wanted, some company on this trip. I quickly caught up to her and walked at her stride, neither of us speaking, but I could feel her gratitude coming off of her. Before long we had a sleepy Weiss and Blake, both of which were grumbling but not bothering to try and convince us to turn around.

By the time we had reached the cliff Weiss and Blake had turned their grumblings into whispers to each other about something. I was to busy worrying about Ruby to really care what they were whispering about. We all turned to face the woods to wait.

We didn't have to wait very long because soon the two odd King Taijitas showed up. Summer strode forward confidently between them again and even though I still couldn't see her face, I could feel her eyes on me.

"You're back early," she called out loudly, "I take it as a sign you've come to a decision."

Ruby started to open her mouth to speak, but before she could Weiss and Blake were standing in front of us, stopping either of us from speaking. "Before they speak, we would like to say something," Weiss said.

"And who are you?" Summer asked casually.

"Let's just say we're moral support," Blake replied.

"You two seem to be doing a lot more than being moral support, but alright," Summer said, "Say what you have to say and then let the girls make their decisions."

Weiss cleared her throat and said, "We, in no intention, are going to try to influence Ruby or Yang's decisions. Blake and I challenge you to a duel, again, this is in no way attempting to influence their decisions."

Summer stood there for a moment, considering, "Fine, but you won't be fighting against me. You'll be fighting my friends here," she gestured to the King Taijitas that were eyeing the two.

Weiss and Blake glanced at each other and nodded, each stepping up to one, Weiss taking the red one and Blake taking the yellow. I started forward but was stopped by Ruby. She didn't take her eyes off of the pair as she told me, "They'll just get frustrated and annoyed with us if we intervene now. Now if either of them look like their in serious trouble a frustrated Weiss will be future Ruby's problem, and an annoyed Blake will be future Yang's problem. I'm pretty sure this is their way of showing to us how much they care about us."

Weiss charged forward all of a sudden, distracting me from answering back to Ruby. The King Taijita charged forward with an alarming speed, slamming into the ground where Weiss had been standing moments before. I glanced around quickly looking for her, when I finally noticed her standing on a glyph several feet above the Grimm. She dissipated her glyph and did a quick plunging attack towards it. The creature finally found her and moved it's head out of the way at the last second, giving Weiss barely enough time to make another glyph to keep from breaking her legs. I glanced over to Blake to see how she was fairing and saw that she was holding up better than Weiss, but only barely.

She was jumping around the monster slicing quickly at it in what everyone called her death dance, while also constantly using her Semblance to keep it confused, and off of her. The downside was, this King Taijita seemed to have more armor than Weiss's, meaning it didn't seem to really be affected by the nonstop string of blows coming at it. It gave a loud roar and spun around affectively knocking all the Blake clones either off the cliff or simply destroying them with it's tail. Blake, luckily, had been in the air when it had done this attack and had managed to land a few blows on the back of it's head that seemed to be effective. Pissing the beast off counts as effective right?

I glanced over at Weiss again, doing my best to keep an equal eye on both of the fighters, and saw she was having more difficulty. The monster was chasing after her with a reckless abandon and leaving large craters in the ground where it slammed it's head. Weiss managed to get a small distance away and attempted blasting it with dust. The beast dove straight through the attacks and mad another attempt to smash into Weiss. Weiss dove to her left and avoided the attack, she turned to the still down King Taijita and switched Myrtenaster over to red dust. She shoved the blade through the beast's eye and it let out another roar/scream/hiss before it's head exploded. Weiss somehow had managed to avoid, like usual, getting herself splattered from head to toe with the blood and guts and everything else that the Grimm was made of.

Looking back at Blake I saw she was still having more difficulty. The thing had her pinned against a tree with it's head and the rest of it's body surrounding the immediate area. Blake had a worried look on her face and before I even knew what was happening the monster, the tree, and even Blake were getting closer, and there was very loud screaming. It wasn't until my fist connected with the face of the monster that I realized I had just intervened in the duel, but I didn't care, one of the people I cared about most in this world had been about to die, and I was NOT going to let that happen. I kept up with the head landing hit after hit after hit on the thing, I saw out of the corner of my eye Blake had hitched a ride on the things back and was launching a series of blows on the back of it's head, all the more impressive considering I was knocking her target around like one of Ozpin's "indestructible" training dummies.

Finally the head slammed hard against the ground, leaving several visible cracks, and it gave it' spinal death hiss/roar/shriek (AN: these things made a hiss when the attacked Ren and from what I remember that was about the only noise they made, so just bear with me plz) and it stayed down. Just to be safe I pumped Ember again and unleashed an exploding round on the head, watching it explode. I turned around just in time to hear an all too familiar shriek, and Blake and I glanced at each other for only a split second before we sprinted together back to the source of said sound.

When we arrived we saw Ruby with Crescent Rose extended into scythe forum and she was standing above Weiss and in front of Summer. "That's enough!" Ruby called out loudly, "I've come to a decision, and I know for a fact that I stand for all of Team RWBY when I say this! We will not be going with you, we will not be joining you, we will not have any further contact with you! If you wish to keep your life, you will leave now and never bother anyone of the four of us ever again!"

Summer regarded her for a moment, and then she began to giggle, and then chuckle, until she was bent over in laughter. "Oh dear sweet Ruby," she said in between gasps, "You really think…that your little…team…can…can actually…stand their…own against…me?" She calmed her self down (AN: the "…" no idea what they are called, is her laughing, but I thought that fit better than trying to write that and putting random "ha" or whatever) and continued, "I'm sorry that you feel that way, but when you returned you only had two choices, you could either walk away alive with me, or lay dead on the ground. And seeing as how you just turned down your first option, it is time for the the second to come into effect." She said threateningly as she went into a stance I'd never seem before.

"I'm afraid someone here would disagree with you," a voice called out from the side. I whirled around and saw a familiar figure striding forward in the moonlight. The first thing in saw as he steeped out of the shadows was a crimson shaggy mess that hardly deserved to be called hair. The next thing I noticed was the two horns, looking just like they had the last time I saw him. He was armed with the ever familiar Blush, which was no doubt holding Wilt inside. He was wearing his usual long-sleeved black trench coat with slit sleeves and more red designs and a white symbol on the left side, which he never explained the meanings to me. I felt Blake stiffen next to me right as I called out to him, "Dad?"

"Hello Yang, Ruby, when this is done, there are some things we will have to discuss. But before we do, I'm going to have to cut down this Fallen."

Ruby: Weiss and I moved away from Summer and I saw Yang and Blake doing the same with Dad. He adopted his own stance, which was to say little to no stance at all, and just sort of standing there similar to a tree. He suddenly lunged forward firing Wilt out but catching it in mid air swinging the blade around catching Summer by surprise on her arm. She slid back slightly, with a black aura around her. "That's definitely not Summer's aura," I muttered as I pulled Weiss into a hug. Suddenly Summer sprinted forward and did a few quick gabs to Dad's stomach followed by a swift uppercut in the throat. Dad flew back and landed on his back gasping for air. In one hand he had dropped Wilt as he struggled to get himself up again and force himself to breathe. When he recovered, Summer grabbed Wilt off of the ground and they were eyeing each other, making sure not to leave themselves open. Summer charged forward again, slicing at him, he blocked each swing quickly with Blush and then fired in her face. She staggered back slightly and he quickly took the opportunity to slam the butt of Blush into her face, followed by two quick shots into her gut. He spun Blush slightly and was now holding it by the barrel and he swung it around similar to a bat and slammed it into her face, sending her flying back. He quickly picked up the dropped Wilt and sheathed it back into Blush.

Summer gave a strangled and feral sounding growl and she charged forward again. Dad fired Wilt in her face, grabbing it before it even really bounced off and he swung again while shooting Blush, finishing behind her. There was a short spurt of blood before she was surrounded by the black aura again. Dad turned around just in time to receive her elbow in his face. She quickly followed through with a quick roundhouse. He slammed against a tree and punched hard in the gut, and he slid down the tree.

He tried to get up but was kicked in the face before he got the chance. She continued to kick him a few more time, before she let out a strangled gasp and staggered back as Wilt slammed into her gut, with all the force of a bullet. She grabbed it before it could touch the ground and glared at her opponent as he got up off the ground. "I've had about enough of you," she gasped out. Obviously constantly using her aura to heal her wounds was taxing her stamina.

Dad gritted his teeth at her and said, "The same to you."

Summer grinned and said, "Well then…why don't we finish this."

Dad stood up straighter, resuming his "stance" from earlier, "I couldn't agree more."

"Good," was all Summer said as she charged forward, ignoring the several shot hammering into her as she impaled Dad through his heart with Wilt.

With that, all four of us screamed loudly.

Third person PoV: Yang charged forward with even more rage and force than if someone had shaved her bald, probably. She she tapped Ember and Celica a few times and they were set up for their ultimate power. She slammed her one fist into Summer's gut and there were several loud echoes of shotgun shots as each shell was simultaneously emptied into her target. She swung her other hand around for an upper cut, launching her up to the awaiting Blake.

Blake began swinging Gambol Shroud around quickly and caught Summer in her aerial dance of death. She used her semblance to constantly force herself higher and higher off the ground dragging her enemy with her as she continued to do more and more damage. After they were a good hundred or two feet in the air she hooked her weapon into Summer and sort of launched her further into the air as a sort of catapult. Weiss, who was suspended in the air thanks to the biggest glyph she had ever created in her life saw her target approaching and activated Myrtenaster's own ultimate power. All the dust chambers activated and drained at once, causing the runes to glow an unearthly white. She launched herself at Summer and felt the slight resistance that marked she had landed the blow. She landed on the ground and dared a glance up at the still falling figure, and saw the black aura around her vanish with a sort of flash. She then quickly moved out of the way. Summer bounced off the ground and that was when Ruby struck. She was moving to fast for the naked eye to detect and left only a storm of rose petals behind her. She stopped suddenly, turned and trotted back to the now in half body of the being that had claimed it had been her mother.

Ruby: I looked down at the body and sighed sadly, and turned to where the rest of the team was crowding around dad. I was next to the rest of them in a second and cloud of rose petals. I looked down at him and saw him smile up at me, "Sorry girls, but it looks like we're going to have to have our discussion at a later point." Yang just nodded sadly and then Dad had this big smile on his face and whispered, "I can see her. The real her. That' slight my love, I'm finally home." Then a strange white glow began to over take him. Then he vanished in a brilliant white flash, leaving in his wake one odd item. I picked it up and looked it over feeling a great sadness over take me, as well as some joy in knowing now they would never be apart.

I looked at the rest of my team and said with a sad smile, "Alright team RWBY, I think it's about it's about time we all graduate." This was met with a small chorus of cheers and we all hugged together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…shit ending to a shit story, am I right? I honestly don't know what happened here, I thought it started out good, maybe I should have just made chapter two a bit longer, ditched the mini time line in that chapter and quit there. Well…it's to late now. The next chapter is going to be a sort of epilogue, that is also complete and total shit. It isn't even long enough to really be an epilogue, but I didn't want it to be part of this chapter.  
> Anyway, the talking shit about my work part is done, um…I don't really know what else to do…oh wait, announcements. So after I get the "epilogue" posted, imma start working on a thing involving my own original characters. I'm hoping it goes better, cause, since they are my own characters, I can decide better how they'll react to stuffs that happen, unlike, you know, this…thing. I'm probably going to do something similar to what Monty did, and have "trailers" to introduce the team individuals first. But, unlike Monty, I am not going to do the trailers in order. I'll probably do so that it is my least favorite to my favorite. Anyway, that's all I have to say, so uh…yeah…I am going to leave now.  
> Oh wait, I almost forgot, who here thinks the warning I added was necessary, I wanna know if I should keep it, or ditch it, but I'm in need of some help deciding. I didn't think what I wrote was very graphic, just crap, but I wanted other people's opinions.


	6. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The main story ends, other than some very minor revelations in the next couple chapters of as great smut as I can muster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No real build up…sorry. As always, place any and all hate/love(very little of that I'd expect)/likes/dislikes at the bottom and I'll reply ASAP.

"You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose."  
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Ruby: Ozpin explained to us after the test ended that we had just done something no other team had ever done, on record, before. We not only took down One of those who Fell, but we also managed to take out what was probably the most dangerous ever. We then graduated a few weeks later. Weiss almost immediately revealed a big surprise she had gotten the team, a huge five story house that belonged to all of us, most specifically Weiss, but she was, "willing to share to benefit the team" I later finally got her to admit that she had simply done it so that she wouldn't have to go back to her father, or be away from me.

The top fourth and fifth floor belonged especially to me and Weiss, the second and third floors belonged to Blake and Yang, while the first floor was shared by the whole team. On said first floor, about dead center in the house, there was a fire place, with a gas fire inside, on the mantel above, and all the shelves around it were different pictures marking the various accomplishments that we had all done as a team. On the mantel, just above the fire place, in what always seemed to be the center to be, though Weiss complains frequently to me that it's not, was a vase holding the worlds oddest rose. It started off at the bottom as one stalk, but the further up you went, it eventually split into two different stems, almost perfectly wrapped around each other. The thing was somehow already had all of it's thorns removed, and seemed to take care of itself. At the top of said plant, there were two blossoms, one a brilliant white that could rival the snow, and the other was was a crimson shaggy mess that hardly deserved to be called a blossom. When we had guests over they always asked about the strange rose, to which we would respond, we found it in a place that had left some unhappy memories. "Why do you keep it?" They always ask. To which we have always responded, "Roses on their own are special, together unstoppable, and now…now we've found a rose that is inseparable, and all it took to get it, was the blood of another Rose."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup…an even shittier ending than you thought. Hope that really explains the title to the people's that were wondering about it, anyway, I'm starting the next story soon, and I hope it's a lot better than the current.

**Author's Note:**

> Before I do anything, I want to apologize for making the first chapter here so short, the others will hopefully be longer
> 
> Ok, so some slightly more explanitive backstory here. Summer Rose was a huntress, along with Ash Rose, I took that name from this lovely story here, http://xekstrin.tumblr.com/post/81860288516/roots-ii  
> (Highly recommend you read it, very good), Qrow, and a forth person who may or may not make an appearance (haven't decided yet). Ash and Summer ended up falling in love and getting married, while staying Hinter/Huntress of corse, until Summer got pregnant with Ruby. Summer than retired from being a huntress to focus on taking care of Ruby. Once Ruby was old enough to attend Elementary school, Summer got a job that starts about an hour or so after Ruby's school starts, and ends about an hour after school does. She also gets Saturday's and Sunday's off so that she can spend the day with her adorable little Ruby. Qrow's day ends the same time Ruby's does, so Summer asked her old teammate to babysit for an hour after school everyday.
> 
> Before anyone out there get's any idea's no, this story does not focus around Summer, just the first chapter or two, while Yang gets inducted into the Rose family.  
> I'm absolutely certain someone is going to wonder why I have White Rose and Bumblebee ships tagged when Weiss and Blake haven't made an appearance, it's cause they're gonna be in it the story later.


End file.
